| December 6, 2011 Our member Kent wanted me to mention this for safety reasons: With Christmas approaching if you find it noteworthy could you mention to watch out for the toys and furniture purchased, and even existing items and make sure there are no issues. The reason I mention this as I recently noticed a staple on the "Cat Condo" sticking out. Over time he must have worked it loose and it would have been very painful to have jumped on a one inch staple sticking straight up. This is definitely good advice because I’ve had that happen once as well so make sure to check your cat products of all kinds. I want to give you all the entire email letter one of our members received from her vet because the way this vet practice presents this test is really kind of appalling in that it cannot do what it claims! Dear Cat Practice Clients, In an effort to provide you with the most up-to-date and AFFORDABLE feline care, The Cat Practice wants to inform you of a new test that can significantly guard your feline family member’s health…specifically your cat’s heart. A new blood test has been developed and is now available at The Cat Practice. It’s called the Cardiopet pro- BNP and detects diseased heart muscle. This test looks for a chemical that is released by abnormal cardiac muscle. This information is significant because heart disease is one of the leading causes of unexpected and acute deaths in our feline pets. And, it is often without symptoms---we don’t know our cat’s heart is sick until it’s too late. Many cats regardless of age have this hidden disease. Now, we can get a jump on early detection and treatment. The Cardiopet pro-BNP test is a simple, quick and painless blood test. This test is appropriate for cats of all ages, and is recommended for all cats undergoing surgical procedures. The Cat Practice is discounting the cost of this test to make it affordable and easy for EVERYONE to check their cats for heart disease. The normal price of this test is $62.50; for December ONLY, we are discounting it to $40.00. Please call The Cat Practice and set up an appointment to have the Cardiopet pro-BNP test done. It may be one of the most important preventative medicine tests you can do for your cat. And, this is why we want you to know about it. Sincerely, Your Cat Practice Team After my member asked me about this I emailed the info to Dr. Barb and this is what she had to say: My vet did not feel it had much value at all in that it really isn't a good screening test for asymptomatic cats without murmurs, and by the time it becomes positive from cardiac disease, they should have some sign or symptom that should also make you think cardiac. He was kind of disgusted with the big marketing push by the company that came up with it. It has A LOT of false positives in that other organs can produce it, for example people with renal failure will have sky-high BNPs, so that is why you wouldn't just screen every cat for it, you're going to get a lot of false positives which will lead to a lot of unnecessary testing. Whoever sent you that marketing ploy should print out the article from JFMS and bring it to the vet. This is terrible on two grounds; it will almost always miss mild-moderate HCM and give false reassurance and possibly lead to not getting a proper work-up (ie, echo), or, if false positive, leads to unnecessary anxiety and expense. By the time the test is reliably positive, there are other signs and symptoms that should in themselves be diagnostic of congestive heart failure/HCM. I'd be leery of anything that vet recommends after getting this. It also may be that they've been snowed by the reps from IDEXX and haven't done their own research into the limitations of the test. It was originally developed for people to help differentiate if shortness of breath is due to pulmonary or cardiac causes. It's most useful when it's negative to rule out cardiac, positives not so exacting, and there's a lot of gray zone where it only tells you there may be something cardiac, more work-up needed, which isn't anything you didn't already know. Anyone who goes to the ER and mentions any symptom involving breathing will get a BNP. I also have a PDF that she received from someone else STATING that this test is unreliable and not worth the time or money. If your vet ever mentions this tests, print out that PDF and let them know that until it’s proven reliable, it’s a NO-GO! (please email me if you'd like a copy of the PDF file, I'll be happy to email you a copy). This is a list of the Current Drug Shortages used in vet medicine: www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ProductSafetyInformation/ucm267669.htm December 7, 2011 Science Diet Gets FDA Warning Letter www.truthaboutpetfood.com/articles/science-diet-gets-fda-warning-letter.html www.fda.gov/ICECI/EnforcementActions/WarningLetters/ucm281270.htm After I saw those two articles I picked up a copy of Cat Fancy Magazine and was flabbergasted to see this: Therapeutic Diet Controls Thyroid Disease – Hill’s Pet Nutrition has introduced a revolutionary new treatment for cats with hyperthyroidism. Prescription Diet y/d, introduced in the fall of 2011, is effective as the SOLE agent in reducing the high thyroid (T4) levels found in hyperthyroid cats. This diet ALONE will control the disease and enable pet parents to discontinue daily treatment with methimazole. That’s truly enough to make me go through the roof! Now someone who doesn’t know enough could possibly stop giving their cat the meds they need and cause some real damage. I can only hope that the vets who insist on feeding this food will NOT go along with this! Speaking of the good old FDA, this falls under the “things that make you say GROSS” topic: A second chance for faulty food? FDA calls it 'reconditioning' http://vitals.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/23/8982673-a-second-chance-for-faulty-food-fda-calls-it- reconditioning Helping pets age gracefully www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/blog/category/general/helping-pets-age-gracefully.html Sounding off about oral cancer research looks into treatments to help beat this painful disease www.morrisanimalfoundation.org/blog/category/cat/sounding-off-about-oral-cancer.html Poisoning cancer cells with sugar (and NO this does not mean to feed your kitties anything with sugar) www.digitaljournal.com/article/315540 This is for people but OH MOMMA this would be so great if we could use this for cats!!! Investigational agent for chronic UTI successful in early study www.modernmedicine.com/modernmedicine/Clinical+Pharmacology/Investigational-agent-for-chronic-UTI- successful-i/ArticleStandard/Article/detail/751515?contextCategoryId=40184 Hanna still haunted by exotic animal escape www.zanesvilletimesrecorder.com/article/20111205/NEWS01/112050302 December 10, 2011 I wanted to let you know about this flea treatment that is causing some major issues with pets. Linus’ mom Peggy emailed me last night telling me that it burned his fur right off and it looked like a chemical burn. He acted fine but within 24 hours it had this effect. So I googled it and found a forum where it’s caused the same issues, it’s called Assurity. If you read the threads one person researched it and found it contains benzyl alcohol!!! www.pets.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=76663 These are the links that person provided on that site and I wanted to copy them here for future use: http://factoidz.com/new-elanco-assurity-for-cats-flea-control-product-with-spinetoram-is-it-safe/ This is scary: www.biospotvictims.org/Assurity.pdf Apparently even after all the science tells us that BPAs are terrible for every living thing the FDA is still unsure: FDA Agrees to Respond on BPA Risk by March 31 www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/12/fda-agrees-to-respond-on-bpa-risk-by-march-31/? utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=111209 This one is a really tough one for me to tell you about. I’ve been sticking up for rice now for a long time only to see this: Reported in Juice, Now in Rice; Arsenic is Everywhere www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/12/first-reported-in-juice-now-in-rice-arsenic-is-everywhere/? utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=111209 Basically as one of our members stated last week, the list of safe foods is getting shorter and shorter. I can’t possibly remove everything off the list for safe foods on my website. So what a couple of us agreed on is that a lot of cat foods contain rice and owners need to decide for themselves if they want to take the risk or try to transition their cats to grain-free, which is usually a better choice anyway. I WISH for once there was some good news about food. This is so discouraging and disgusting but unless you feed raw or home-cooked food, you have to deal with all of these issues. Mine won’t eat either of those two so I’m stuck. This is really incredible! In Israel, Declawing Your Cat Could Get You Jail Time Israel to cat owners: Get your paws off their claws or go to prison — but only after paying a whopping $20,000 fine. http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/12/09/declawing-your-cat-could-get-you-a-year-in-jail-in-israel/ Pet therapy program helps seniors with serious illnesses http://napervillesun.suntimes.com/lifestyles/9263874-423/pet-therapy-program-helps-seniors-with-serious- illnesses.html Dr. Barb gave me this link but I’m sure a lot of you have seen this by now. Some of you will go nuts because I know how much you love kitties with extra toes! Cat's 26 toes help boost Milwaukee animal shelter http://news.yahoo.com/cats-26-toes-help-boost-milwaukee-animal-shelter-080754594.html I’ve also moved the Toxic/Unsafe foods link to the main menu bar instead of the foods page because I don’t think enough of you are really looking at it. It’s not at all that I mind looking things up but usually 75% of the stuff is there on that list. I want you all to get used to reading labels and then checking that list. There are several ingredients I’m asked about over and over and I’m trying to not sit here all day anymore (especially with my recent back injury, I have to get my butt up off the chair). So if you can check it on your own first, that would be easier for both of us. If it’s not on that list at all that’s not a problem. PLEASE don’t take this to mean I don’t want you to ask, NOT THE CASE AT ALL. You know I enjoy helping out as much as I can. I just want you to get used to it as second nature. What if someday I’m actually able to take a vacation and I’m not here? I know, long shot, but still! LOL. And usually if you Google that ingredient you can find tons of info on it. This way if you’re on other forums you can answer questions about a lot of these dangerous food items. You would not believe how many other places I see people feeding their kitties stuff that makes me cringe in fright because I know better. I need help educating others with this stuff and I’d love you all to do that. Also, don’t forget to read not only the active ingredients of supplements and other products besides food but the INACTIVE ingredients as well because that’s where they hide a lot of things. December 13, 2011 Unfortunately we have more food that I am now removing from my list. (Thank you Elaine and Tina for both this info). Wellness canned CUBED entrees. All of them. The sliced and minced ones are fine but the cubed ones all contain spinach. Also the canned food of Fresh Pet Select. Please continue sending me anymore that you find! This is very helpful and I appreciate all of your efforts. Dogs rescued from Beirut looking for homes in West Michigan today www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2011/12/dogs_rescued_from_beirut_looki.html I agree and nothing makes me more mad in the summer than to see people walking their dogs in front of my flower garden and letting them go into it and poop, then NOT pick it up! I usually yell out to them that I have a security camera hidden catching them, LOL. Which is not true but it works. Dog Poop Poses Disease Risk: Scoop Fido's Feces While It's Still Fresh www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/09/dog-poop-scoop-infectious-disease_n_1138618.html Pet May Need a Veterinary Specialist www.theledger.com/article/20111211/COLUMNISTS/111219938/1002/sports?p=1&tc=pg Good link! Thank you Gloria! Just Days till Death - What to Do Immediately If Your Kitty Stops Eating http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2011/12/13/feline-hepatic-lipidosis.aspx Also wanted to mention that quite often I get the newsletter bouncing back to me from specific emails because it says your email boxes has met it’s quota so I don’t know if you’re checking your mail enough or how that works. But there are very important issues like this one that you may miss so please try to keep your email boxes open to receiving more mail. Here are some links about spinach I know some of you asked for some: www.ehow.com/list_7451990_calcium-oxalate-crystals-plants.html www.ehow.com/about_6365676_definition-calcium-oxalate-crystals.html www.ehow.com/info_8253957_foods-calcium-oxalate-kidney-stones.html www.lowoxalate.info/ www.ohf.org/docs/OxalateContent092003.pdf December 16, 2011 Competition for pet medicines could drive up vet prices www.star-telegram.com/2011/12/12/3587229/veterinarians-losing-grip-on-lucrative.html How Are You Like Your Pet? http://blogs.webmd.com/pet-tales/2011/12/the-health-issues-you-and-your-pet-have-in-commo.html Cat's 26 toes earn dough to save shelter http://animaltracks.today.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/15/9468206-cats-26-toes-earn-dough-to-save-shelter FDA Regulation of Pet food Labeling (which should be A LOT MORE STRICT than this) www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/Products/AnimalFoodFeeds/PetFood/ucm2006475.htm Make life easier on your senior cat by providing extra litter boxes in various locations so she doesn't have far to go when nature calls. Provide low-sided boxes for cats with limited mobility, and remove hoods from the boxes so cats don't feel cramped. Keep nightlights on for cats with failing eyesight. If your cat's aim is no longer accurate, place absorbent pads under and around the box to catch spills. Routinely check your cat's back area in case she needs help cleaning there. Some elderly cats groom less or may dribble urine in their sleep, which can cause scalding. Longhaired cats may have feces stuck to their fur, and will need help getting it removed. And most of all, be patient and understanding. Pam Johnson-Bennett, CABC, is a certified cat behavior consultant and author of seven best-selling books. Her website is www.catbehaviorassociates.com One of our members received an email from Weruva yesterday stating that the spinach has already been removed from one of the products and they are in the process now of removing it from the other one. WOW! That’s quick! I also heard from David Forman yesterday. I have to say for all the times we get really angry and aggravated with pet food companies, this isn’t one of them. I’m very impressed with how quickly they’ve responded and the level of understanding they have to our concerns. If any of you would like to, please email them and thank them for doing this! Remember the Vital Essentials Raw food website where we asked him to revise his “transition to raw” page for cats? This is MUCH, MUCH better! http://www.vitalessentialsraw.com/html/Fill%20my%20bowl%20cat.htm December 17, 2011 This is an entry from a forum I’m on about Purina making cats very sick, please read: www.catster.com/forums/Food_and_Nutrition/thread/729051 Disturbing!!! If you ever have any pet food issues please report them to the pet food company immediately and to the FDA at this address: www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/ReportaProblem/ucm182403.htm This is a good time to tell you also that this past week one of our members wrote to Purina to express her disgust in how they brainwash the public into thinking their food is exactly what will make your cat healthy and happy. The reply was very much what I expected and this is the paragraph that stood out for the both of us (thank you Christina for writing to them and also for giving me this information): Please know that you are correct, cats are carnivores. Keep in mind, a protein molecule is made up of a combination of amino acids. The way the amino acids are arranged determines the nature of the protein. Whether protein is obtained from plants or animals is not as critical as the balance of amino acids. There are 23 different amino acids. Eleven amino acids are considered essential to a cat's diet and ten are considered essential to a dog's diet because the system of the cat and dog cannot manufacture these amino acids in large enough quantities to maintain body functions. Animal products are excellent sources of protein, but plants also contain valuable amino acids. Plant proteins, when combined with animal proteins or other plant proteins, can provide the proper amino acid balance for every life stage of the cat and dog. The protein in Purina pet foods is obtained from a combination of animal and plant sources. Absolute colossal bull!!!! Cats need protein from MEAT!!!! There are many, many reasons for that one being that you cannot acquire B12 from plant protein, it’s impossible! B12 needs to be supplemented through MEAT! B12 is essential for absorbing nutrients! I’ve got more information on that issue on my B12 page if some of you haven’t read it yet: http://ibdkitties.net/B12.html. I’m so glad some of you are becoming so active in not only YOUR pet’s health but taking the time to learn what’s really going on and helping to educate others. December 18, 2011 MORE PURINA COMPLAINTS AND MANY ILLNESSES! (thank you Tina for this link) WARNING: Purina pet food has started making pets ill http://silvertwi.livejournal.com/130366.html Also: www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/ralston.html December 21, 2011 Here we go again folks. Our member Lily has discovered something rather disgusting in her bag of Natural Balance food. Here’s the info: Natural Balance Alpha Cat Balanced Protein, Chicken, turkey meal and duck formula. There are about 4 pieces where there is something that looks dark brown like a hard liquid. The other pieces are blue molded with hairs sticking out of them. This is the date and lot #: Aug 24, 2012 - B43/0502 If you look back at the consumer complaints website, there are many more complaints about Natural Balance dry food and people are beginning to get extremely angry, understandably! www.consumeraffairs. com/pets/natural_balance.html. I also want to make sure you know that even though Purina makes Fancy Feast and Friskies, there no known problems with those particular foods. I’ve been getting a lot of emails about that and I feed the grain free Fancy Feast to my cats on occasion and have had no issues at all. And I’ve not heard of any, it’s only with their dry foods. Since my newsletter about Purina I’ve seen a lot more complaints about that as well. Dry food really has a lot of problems and if you can manage to get your kitty off of it altogether, all the better. Unfortunately I know that’ s not possible for a lot of you as your kitties are sick and refuse to eat anything else, even the healthy ones. Sigh. There are also some new complaints on the Purina complaints site that are pretty scary: www.consumeraffairs.com/pets/ralston.html. While we’re on the subject of gross, I’ve been using Petsmart’s brand cat litter the Exquisicat wheat cat litter for awhile now with no problems. Then this last bag I had repulsed me so much I could have screamed! I looked on the Petsmart’s website and low and behold I’m not the only one who had this problem. Little brown bugs everywhere! I don’t know what they are but this is the site complaints and there’s a picture from one of those reviews: www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=11272891&lmdn=Product+Type#RatingsDetail I’m making a list of the companies, the products and the contact information for the ones I know of that contain spinach. I’ll be posting those soon so we can start contacting those companies about it. There’s a new product from Nature’s Variety that contains spinach: INSTINCT® RAW DAILY BOOST™ FREEZE DRIED SUPPLEMENT www.naturesvariety.com/products/treats/instinct/boost/powder/beef 16 Ill in Salmonella Ground Beef Outbreak www.foodsafetynews.com/2011/12/16-ill-in-salmonella-ground-beef-outbreak/? utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=111221 December 27, 2011 Vets Warn of 'Dog Flu' in North Texas - Contagious virus is spreading to Dallas and Tarrant Counties www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Vets-Warn-of-Dog-Flu-in-North-Texas-136040518.html This is a GREAT segment on a video and this little dog is so cute!! It’s also very nice to see how committed her parents are to her care and well being. Pet Vet: How to handle a paralyzed pet http://www1.kvoa.com/videos/pet-vet-how-to-handle-a-paralyzed-pet/ Secondhand smoke is harming pets www.standard.net/stories/2011/12/20/secondhand-smoke-harming-pets (Thank you Gina for this great link and story!) Meet Jasmine, the rescue dog who has become a surrogate mother for the 50th time www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1103645/Meet-Jasmine-rescue-dog-surrogate-mother-50th-time.html Fun Facts About Cats' Mouths Kittens have 26 teeth, which start falling out between 3 and 4 months of age. Those baby teeth are replaced by 30 adult teeth -- 12 tiny incisors, used mostly for grooming; four canines for catching and holding prey; 10 premolars designed for tearing meat off bones; and four molars far in the back of the mouth. Unlike those of humans and dogs, cats' jaws can move only in an up-and-down motion. The lack of side-to-side movement makes it impossible for cats to grind food, which is why they usually swallow kibble whole instead of chewing it. If Your Cat's Poop Reeks, It Could Be Parasites Many parasites can cause intestinal woes, but the winners of the litterbox gross-out contest are the protozoa. These single-celled nasties, the most common of which are giardia, cryptosporidium, coccidia, and toxoplasma, often cause excruciatingly stinky diarrhea, the color and characteristics of which vary depending on the parasite. Protozoa can be hard to detect with the standard test for intestinal parasites, but if your cat has long-standing, foul-smelling diarrhea, it's worth asking your vet to dig a little deeper. Standard dewormers don't kill protozoa, so your vet will need to prescribe special medication to treat the infestation. by JaneA Kelley, Cat expert and animal communicator, Paws and Effect I’ve removed all the Natural Balance Platefull pouches from my foods page. A person from a forum I’m not on heard about what we were doing through one of you and wrote to me informing me that the NB Platefulls all contained spinach. To be honest my cats didn’t like any of those pouches at all!!! All veggies and practically nothing else. They’re off the list now anyway. I’ve also removed the NB Alpha cat dry food, as that also contains spinach. Btw, Lily has spoken with Natural Balance a couple of times about the issue with the food that made her cats sick and this is the outcome of those calls: First, I was told that there was no way that this could have happened at their factory and that there must have been a hole in the bag. Next, after they reviewed the photos, they told me that the food must have been bagged before it was able to dry, and this caused the mold. I requested a call once they contacted their factory and was then told that this happened to my food in transport. They went on to blame it on the weather conditions in Chicago. I was told that the bag must have frozen while on the truck, and due to condensation it developed mold. They checked the samples they had at their factory and I was told that this was just my bag. I was also told on each phone conversation that their food forms mold very quickly. They said this to me several times, which kind of scared me. I asked the woman if I shouldn't feed this to my pets in the winter because it could freeze on the trucks? She didn't disagree with me. If this is the case, they need to check every bag that was sent to my area. The fact that they are not is the reason why I will no longer feed this food. My cats were throwing up all week, a lot. I had no idea that it was the food until I found the mold. Ridiculous excuses if you ask me. Since when does cold weather produce mold? Maybe it can happen but I’ve never seen it and usually cold weather preserves food better as if it were in the refrigerator as far as I know. But it may be different for dry food than for wet, I don’t know. I’ve still never had that issue. In the summer I can definitely see that happening! The condensation in the bag though is a big problem and happens more and more lately to a lot of companies. They need to figure out a way to fix this issue, it’s happening too often. December 30, 2011 Yesterday was called “Good Riddance Day” and I wholeheartedly agree. Good riddance to this very trying and difficult year that so many of us have experienced. So many kitties that left their families, lots of human passings as well. I myself lost 3 very close relatives this year, one just before Christmas. This horrible economy is forcing everyone to make big sacrifices and in so many cases the family pets are suffering for it. I’ve also seen some wonderful and miraculous things happen and when I’m feeling down I think about how I have made some of the most amazing friends I’ve ever had in my entire life through our shared love of animals. In a world filled with craziness and chaos I have seen some extraordinary acts of kindness and selflessness from people I’ve never met in person but I feel like we’re family. I’m always saying I cannot do this work alone and I’m grateful to know in my heart I don’t have to. IBD Kitties will be three years old next week and while I’m thrilled we’re all doing so much good out there, I can never get over how this all came to be. Because of the suffering my sweet little girl went through. That will always stick in my mind and it will always drive me to push as hard as I do for change. I have a lot of things planned for this year to spread the word about these diseases and so many others as well. I’m already working behind the scenes with some of you towards important goals. We work well together because we share the pain of losing our soulmates in fur clothing and we know if we don’t do something with this pain, it’ll just eat us up. We can’t let that happen and at the end of every day just knowing we’ve helped even one kitty and their parents…that at least comforts me. So here’s to a brand new year with brand new goals, new and better treatments for our kitties, new friends and acquaintances to help us with our missions, new furchildren coming into our lives, new miracles. A lovely friend of mine gave me her blessing to use part of her Christmas wish for her friends because it’s so fitting. May you have all the blessings of the New Year; may present friendships strengthen, new alliances begin, old wounds heal, and may we all see a deepening of our faiths - whatever they may be - and a greater prosperity to help ease the physical burdens we each bare. Happy New Year everyone! May you know nothing but happy times, endless love, enormous wealth on the inside and out, and most importantly GOOD HEALTH for you, your families and your furchildren. Purrs and Headbonks Lisa & the Furbrats |
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| Newsletter Archive December 2011 |
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